The former George Washington High School guard had ambitions of playing basketball for the Colorado Buffaloes. He didn't follow his older brother Chauncey's footsteps and play for CU, but Billups is making his mark on the program as an assistant coach.

"One of the things I remembered when I interviewed him at the time was how much he wanted to be a Buff and how he wanted to be at the University of Colorado as a player," said CU head coach Tad Boyle.

Billups, 31, joined the CU staff as director of basketball operations in 2010 and was promoted to assistant coach in 2012. Billups has been a part of the Buffs' recent success — a 92-49 record since 2010 that includes three consecutive NCAA Tournament berths.

After leading the University of Denver to a 20-11 record in his senior season as a college player, Billups went overseas to begin a professional career.

"I wanted to play as long as I could," he said.

But after two years in Latvia and Finland, heartbreaking news from home shifted his priorities. His mother, Faye, had bone cancer.

"It didn't make sense to keep playing when my mom was diagnosed with cancer," he said. "I was in Europe at the time. She had been getting sick and it just didn't make any sense."

It was all about family for the Billups family; basketball came second.

After two years of treatments, Faye's cancer went into remission. It has stayed that way for the past five years, Billups said. "We always say she's the toughest in the family, and it's not even close," he said.

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During this time, Chauncey had been traded to the Nuggets and his younger brother began helping out with the team. Rodney credits former Nuggets assistants Tim Grgurich and Jamahl Mosley for helping him discover coaching as a potential profession.

"They helped me a lot," he said. "Those two guys are really the reason why I took coaching seriously."

Ultimately, Billups said, he wants to become a head coach someday.

"He's smart, he's sharp, he works hard. Absolutely, if that's a goal of his," Boyle said.

But for now, Billups is busy working on helping improve the Buffs' program. Complacency is not in his vocabulary. Adorned on his office door is a piece of paper that reads "Pittsburgh 77, Colorado 48."

The score of the Buffs' second-round loss in last season's NCAA Tournament serves as motivation to redeem a disappointing end to a season that began with so much promise.

"It's a constant reminder," Billups said. "Not only to our players, our student-athletes, but to our coaching staff of how the season ended. It was embarrassing and something that this program can learn from and grow from and start for next season."

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